News Channel 7 Investigates: Is it really an emergency?
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911 video update
Video for the TSR 911 story
Greenville County could soon change the way its EMS system handles non-emergency calls. The possible changes are in response to a News Channel 7 investigation that revealed ambulances often act more like glorified taxi cabs, than emergency responders.
It's a problem that impacts health care across the country and here in the Upstate. The problem is a combination of people who make abusive requests for an ambulance and an EMS system that never says no.
Here are some samples of abuse requests:
Operator: “EMS, fire. What’s the address of your emergency?”
Caller: “My wife is hmm, hmm, is constipated...she's hasn't used the bathroom in about a month.”
Another caller asks for ambulance to help a women go to the bathroom.
Caller: “She needs to go to the bathroom. She can't get up off of her chair
Operator: “So, she just needs help getting up?”
Caller: “Right.”
Operator: “’She's not hurt or anything like that?”
Caller: “Oh, no.”
Other callers ask for an ambulance for sore throats, the flu, and a woman who cut her hand, that stopped bleeding the day before.
Operator: “Right now, is it bleeding?”
Caller: “No.”
Why do ambulances respond to such non-emergency calls? Greenville County's EMS policy says it can never say no.
In May, News Channel 7 first showed you how non-emergency calls can impact real emergencies when seconds count. For example, In April county response records show time to help a pregnancy and a seizure were nearly double the norm, because crews were busy with a non-emergency call.
From 2006 and 2007, nearly 20 percent of the county's responses were non-emergencies.
“We're concerned about the issue,” says county council member Joe Dill. He and fellow councilman Fred Payne say it’s time to re-evaluate the county's EMS system.
Both say issues with the county EMS’ system are not local, but a national problem, “I think we are addressing it here. I think Greenville County is very progressive in trying to solve a national issue.”
To find out what's working, we went all the way to Richmond, Virginia to evaluate the busiest EMS system per capita in the nation. To reduce its non-emergency responses, nurses started taking non-emergency calls in 2006.
“We want to save the ambulances for the true emergencies and if they're taking a call for a tooth ache, we may run short of those resources,” says Lee Ann Baker, Chief Administrative Officer for Richmond Ambulance Authority.
Nurses help answer callers’ medical questions, schedule appointments at doctor's offices, or find more appropriate resources for transportation. Ambulances are sent if still wanted, but the program is reducing non-emergency responses, “The two years that it's been live, there have been over 750 ambulances that we did not have to send, that's 750 people that go more appropriate resources in the community,” said Baker.
By email, Greenville County's EMS director Zaragoza says it’s looking into working with hospitals to add nurses in Greenville County too, “It's definitely that we've already looked into, and really have initial discussions with some of the hospitals.”
Zaragoza says the abusive calls make up a small percentage of the non-emergency calls.
Council members promise taxpayers will see progress. Payne also wants the county to implement a stronger public education campaign about proper EMS usage, and suggests asking church groups to help.
Spartanburg and Anderson county EMS share the same policy, but both agencies claim it’s difficult to tell how many non-emergency calls it responds to per year because they run lights and sirens on all medical calls.
To hear audio of some of the 911 calls click play on the video player below.
For part one of this series, click here
Reader Reactions
i wasnt comparing ems to wreckers if you would have read it closely it states they could dispatch non emergency ambulances in much the same way as wreckers are they have a rotating list the 911 dispatchers use and they rotate calls to the wreckers that way no 1 wrecker gets more calls i am one of those professionals and have been for over 15 years and i do because i love it not because of the money trust me we dont make what we should for what we do we do it because we love helping people so no matter when you call someone will be there to help you yes the public needs to be educated on who to call if its not an emergency call one of these non emergency ambulances they will do the same job as the 911 ambulances and not indanger someones life by going lights and sirens to all calls like 911 ambulances have to thats when wrecks happen and i hate to see in the news when an ambulance wrecks and someone gets hurt because they were going to a call and it was not an emergency
The issue is one of education of the public and not the number of units on the streets. Each EMS struggles to meet the needs of the public. If the public is educated on the issue of when to call 911 it can resolve a little of the problem. There will always be calls that are not as serious as others, and those are addressed by the systems protocols. I highly respect the profession, and you can’t compare the services rendered to those given by wrecker services
i hope the public will get behind this and push the counties to change as davsmom stated its a problem with all emergency services i am a paramedic i have the privilage of working with county ems services as well as non emergency ambulance services and i have also been a volunteer firefightr and im sure you all have heard the old story of calling a fire dept to get the cat out of the tree well that does happen just like ive been sent to emergent calls to find someone with a bug bite or a toothache and dont take this wrong ive also been told they called an ambulance cause they think they will get seen faster if they come in on a stretcher almost all 911 dispatchers are EMD trained emergency dispatch trained they can forward these type calls and the ones where i have a cold or head ache to non emergency agencies that operate paramedic staffed trucks just like ems does but you have to get this power away from the ems directors that are more concerned with keeping there run numbers up so they can ask for more money and trucks next year well if all the BS calls were re routed to non emergent ambulances there wouldnr be a need to ask for more money and more trucks think about it people your mom or son might be having a heart attack or asthma attack and they have to wait 5 extra minutes because the ambulance that is stationed 3 blocks away is at the hospital dropping of a lady that is constipated what would you say or do then when it happens to you it might one day you never know
I wholeheartedly agree with the concept of being able to refer nonemergent calls to someone “ in house” to deal with those calls. Many large health care facilities still sponsor “Ask A Nurse” ( “Regional On Call” @ SRMC) and I am not sure if Greenville Hospital System still has one, but it would greatly benefit the systems to have an “inhouse” ability to triage those calls if they are not classified emergent by the EMS dispatchers who have undergone extensive training. Having a medically trained staff member to take those calls and make proper referrals to the callers would help a lot. Public education is the key for decreasing the number of non emergent calls.WSPA has started the ball-can you keep it going with PSA’s about 911 calls and when to call someone else (not only for EMS but for Law Enforcement as well)-it could be low cost to the station and a great service to your viewing community—and in turn decrease the amount of taxpayer dollars being wasted on non emergent calls and transportation.Maybe all media outlets would jump on board if they realized the potential for tax savings and most of all the number of lives saved! Thanks for listening
in responce to the broadcast about is it an emergency ive worked for 911 systems as well as non emergency ambulance services and ive seen both sides of the problem and yes it is a big problem but i dont feel for the counties they are to money hungry to let the stupid calls go because it would take away from there call volume and they might lose a few dollars from medicare or medicaid for taking these people to the emergency room there are enough non emergency ambulance services around that when these type calls come in they could give these calls to them instead of a 911 ambulance they have the same trained people ass 911 there emts and paramedics also so the level of care is the same and you would leave the 911 units avail for the more severe calls you could rotate these calls like they do wreckers have a list and alternate calls with all the non emergency services they need to look at this and the public needs to push this issue
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